OFAC General Licenses 56 and 57 reopened a narrow corridor for foreign capital into Venezuela in April 2026. Maia Legal is the project-management bridge: we run OFAC compliance and corporate structure from Colombia, and execute Caracas registry work through a vetted Venezuelan partner. Local execution. Multi-jurisdictional accountability.
For the first time in nearly a decade, there is a defensible legal pathway for non-U.S. and qualifying U.S. capital to enter, operate, and repatriate from Venezuela. Three structural shifts make the timing real.
Defined corridors for specified commercial activity. Narrow but real — and the first credible reopening since the 2019 sanctions wave.
De facto dollarization removes most FX volatility. Pricing, salaries, leases and invoicing routinely settle in dollars — a fundamentally different operating environment than five years ago.
Active ZEE regimes offer tax incentives, simplified customs, and FX flexibility for qualifying activity. Eligibility is sector-specific and worth checking before you choose your structure.
A Venezuela entry is a parallel-track project, not a single filing. We run the workstreams in sequence where required and in parallel where possible, with a single point of contact across all of them.
Written legal memo mapping your activity, counterparties, and capital flows to GL 56 and GL 57. Sanctions screening on every party in the structure. Documentation built to survive an OFAC enforcement subpoena, not a casual review.
Compania Anonima or Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada — we recommend the structure based on your shareholder map and exit strategy, draft the estatutos to your operational reality, and execute the Caracas registry through our vetted local partner under our project management.
Registration of the foreign investment with the Superintendencia de Inversiones Extranjeras. This is the document that legally unlocks dividend, royalty, and capital repatriation. Skipping it is the single most common reason foreign investors find their dividends trapped.
Bank account opening in Venezuela is a documentation exercise, not a meeting. We assemble the full KYC dossier — beneficial ownership, source of funds, OFAC posture, structure chart, board resolutions — to a standard that gets you through compliance on the first pass, not the third.
Once the entity is live, the compliance perimeter has to be maintained. Monthly OFAC monitoring, SIEX reporting, statutory filings, banking liaison, ZEE reporting where applicable, and a quarterly compliance health-check across both Caracas and Santa Marta.
You deal with one project lead in Santa Marta. We deal with the Caracas registry partner, the local accountant, the bank compliance officer, and where applicable your U.S. OFAC counsel. You get a weekly status note and a single invoice.
For most foreign principals, the right counsel for a Venezuela project sits outside Caracas — closer to the regulator that matters most (OFAC), under legal protections that travel internationally, with banking and document custody in a stable jurisdiction. That is the structure we offer.
OFAC compliance memo. Structuring opinion. Bilingual project management. Banking liaison. Document custody. Single invoice and a single point of accountability under Colombian and U.S. legal protections.
Local execution at the Mercantile Registry, SENIAT, SIEX, and the operating bank. Subcontracted by Maia under our scope and timeline, paid through our trust account, and reporting to your project lead — never directly to you.
The structural logic is simple. OFAC is U.S. law. A compliance memo carrying U.S. and international legal weight is more credible coming from a multi-jurisdictional firm than from inside Caracas — and far easier to defend if questioned later.
Banking and document custody belong outside Venezuela. Operating files, share registers, beneficial-ownership records, and trust funds for registry fees sit in Colombia under Colombian banking and legal protections — not in a jurisdiction with a fluid regulatory perimeter.
Local execution still happens locally. The Mercantile Registry, SENIAT, SIEX, and the bank are all in Caracas — and they always will be. We do not pretend otherwise. We just put a project-management layer between you and them, run by a firm whose accountability is enforceable in your jurisdiction.
Both packages are quoted in USD. Final number lands inside the band after the OFAC compliance memo — your specific facts, sector, and counterparty profile determine where in the range you fall.
End-to-end: from OFAC compliance memo through to a fully registered, SIEX-recorded operating entity with a Venezuelan bank account.
Once the entity is live, the compliance perimeter has to be maintained. The retainer keeps your OFAC posture, statutory filings, and banking relationship current.
GL 56 (April 2026) reopened a defined corridor for non-U.S. persons to engage in specified transactions with sanctioned Venezuelan entities for limited commercial purposes, while GL 57 created an authorization framework for wind-down and structured re-entry by U.S. persons in select sectors. Both licenses are narrowly drawn — they authorize categories of activity, not blanket commerce. Every engagement still requires a written compliance memo mapping your activity to the license language before any value is moved or any contract is signed.
Three reasons. First, OFAC compliance is a U.S. and international law exercise — it sits more naturally in a multi-jurisdictional firm than inside Caracas. Second, our partners, banking, document custody, and client communications operate under Colombian and U.S. legal protections, which materially reduces project risk for foreign principals. Third, we still get the Caracas work done — through a vetted Venezuelan registry partner we manage on your behalf — so you get local execution without local exposure.
If you intend to legally repatriate dividends, royalties, or capital out of Venezuela, yes — SIEX (Superintendencia de Inversiones Extranjeras) registration of the foreign investment is the document that unlocks lawful currency outflow. Skipping it is the single most common reason foreign investors find their dividends trapped. We handle SIEX registration as part of the Turnkey pack.
C.A. is the Venezuelan equivalent of a corporation — share-based, with a board, suited to operations that may eventually take in capital partners, joint ventures, or scale headcount. S.R.L. is the Venezuelan limited liability company — quotas instead of shares, lighter governance, suited to closely-held operating vehicles. We recommend the structure during scoping based on your shareholder map, exit assumptions, and OFAC posture.
Venezuela operates on de facto dollarization for most commercial transactions — pricing, salaries, leases, and invoicing are routinely in USD. This dramatically simplifies cost modelling and removes most of the FX volatility that historically made Venezuela un-modellable. Your books and tax filings remain in Bolivares, so you still need a local accountant who can bridge the two — which is part of what the retainer covers.
Plan for 10 to 14 weeks from kick-off to operational entity. The OFAC compliance memo and structuring opinion is delivered in weeks 1 to 3. Caracas registry work is the longest leg — typically 6 to 10 weeks depending on registry queue and document apostille turnaround from your home jurisdiction. SIEX registration and banking KYC run in parallel with the final registry steps.
Yes. Venezuela has activated several Zonas Economicas Especiales (ZEE) with tax incentives, simplified customs, and FX flexibility for qualifying activities. We assess ZEE eligibility during the structuring phase and, where it materially improves the economics, route the registration through the ZEE framework as part of the Turnkey pack.
We do not act as your U.S. OFAC counsel of record — we coordinate with your U.S. firm where you have one and refer to a vetted U.S. firm where you do not. We do not facilitate any transaction outside the four corners of the applicable General License. And we do not take engagements where the underlying activity, structure, or counterparty fails our internal sanctions screen — that screen runs before any retainer is signed.
Start with a 30-minute call. We'll give you an honest read on whether your facts fit GL 56 or GL 57 — and if they don't, we'll tell you on that same call.